Thursday, May 26, 2011

Organizing 101

After all the boring de-cluttering its time to move on to something interesting.

Organizing - Assigning everything a rightful place in the house. A close friend taught me - Organizing does not have to be expensive.Yes, it can be tricky. But with some tips to start off you will be a pro in no time.

And remember the tasklist I told you about.Its made on this little dry erase board. A find at walgreens.Its a great investment for busy people. I saw this at a friend's place and loved it.

Toys

Next came the toys. Aamod has several sets of legos, puzzles that he loves to play with. I store each of these sets in 2Gallon or jumbo sized zip lock bags.

These are then be put away into a large plastic box. So far its worked out well for him. He loves opening and closing the zip locks and even puts them away when he's done with them. Overall he seems quite happy about this arrangement. Who knew ?

I also sorted the toys by type. For instance the balls were together so were the other miscellaneous smaller toys. You dont have to buy pretty containers for that. Use what you have. Like I used this tall plastic box that serves the purpose.

Extra clothes

I stored Aamod's extra clothing into storage bags that I got from dollar store. They are not super quality but they do the job well. Am sure other stores would carry them in better quality.

You see the box on the left. It holds all the party supplies leftover from Aamod's birthday party. The top shelf of closets is perfect for items such as these that are sparingly used.

Shoes

We had several pairs of shoes occupying the floor of our shoes and jacket closet. This hanging shelf uses the vertical space to store all our shoes. Now the floor can be used to store other things like vaccum cleaners, strollers etc.

Another great alternative is to use an over the door shoe organizer. You dont have to use this organizer for shoes. Check out where all you can use it here - 10 things to store in shoe organizer.

Going Green

We have also dropped the grocery store plastic bags and switched to cloth bags. A set of 5 bags from walmart cost about $2.50. They are more than enough for our family of 3.

This frees up the space under the sink where we trash all the polythenes. And we all feel good about it too. I keep them in the car and its only a matter of habit to remember to take them along.

Refrigerator Baskets

I got one of these from walmart and the steel one from Goodwill store for $1.50.

These are especially useful if you have lot of frozen stuff that falls off when you open the freezer door. Avoids serious accidents when you have little ones running around.

Basket,Bins and Totes

These are a great organizing tool. Get pretty ones for the outside such as in the living room and dollar store ones where you just want some organizing, like this one under the sink.

It stores all the items for cleaning. They can hold a lot of stuff and still look great.

This red one cost me 7 bucks at HomeGoods and was on sale that day.So be sure to invest wisely.

Canvas Totes or baskets are great for clothes. Walmart, Biglots carry them for a reasonable price.They are light and look great too. Be sure to choose colors that match the rest of the room. Use separate color totes for multiple kids.

Reorganizing

I had a dresser in my hall to hold stuff like stationary, bills etc. I now use it to hold Aamod's clothes. Some clever reorganizing frees up space and makes full use of existing furnuture. Same goes for book racks, cubes etc.

The crux here is to keep is to group items together. For instance this narrow shelf in our bathroom that holds personal items.

And this is defintely not all. I am sure there are lots of ideas out there. And it all depends on personal taste and habits. As for me , I still have lots to work on.

And finally...

Your house is your home - a special place to call your own. Its a place where you can be yourself and so can the kids. So do not be too finicky about the arrangement.After all your home is not a model home. Things will scatter and messes will be made. Be prepared to readjust and revisit as per personal preference. And ofcourse do not stress out too much.

Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.

~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

A big thank you to my friends D,A,Z for all the inspiration and motivation. You all know who you are and I love you a lot !!

Drop me a comment if you have questions, comments or more advice for me. I would love to hear from you.